All music begins in the brain of the musician, who attempts to communicate his musical thoughts through the use of a musical instrument. No musical instrument provides a perfect link with the brain to allow the musician to completely express his musical thoughts. All instruments have inherent advantages and disadvantages when compared with each other.
The piano keyboard is perhaps the most logically laid-out musical instrument. The notes are arranged from lowest pitch to highest pitch. A repeating pattern comprising seven white keys and five black keys extend from left to right. The C major scale is represented by all the white keys, while an E flat pentatonic scale is represented by all the black keys. Put another way, the white keys are natural notes, and the black keys are accidentals. When reading a musical staff, traveling upward on the staff corresponds to traveling to the right on the keyboard. It is easy, even for a novice, to find a corresponding note on the piano keyboard when reading the musical staff.
One of the major expressive limitations of the keyboard is the manner in which each of the keys are played. The key is pressed to sound the note which that key represents. Most modern electronic keyboards, and traditional acoustic pianos, provide "touch sensitivity". Thus, when the key is struck harder, it will produce a loud sound. By controlling the velocity with which the keys are struck, the keyboardist can control the "dynamics" of the music he produces. However, the only control that a keyboard player has over that note is the loudness. It is very difficult for the keyboard player to "vamp" on a particular note or chord, play rapid arpeggiated versions of that chord, or to repeatedly play a single note rapidly.
Even the modern portable electronic keyboard has a further disadvantage, in that it is typically a stationary instrument--it is not easy for a keyboardist to play his instrument while carrying it around. Attempts at providing "strap-on" keyboards in the early eighties were largely unsuccessful. This is due to the fact that the keyboard requires that the player maintain a similar wrist angle across the entire keyboard in order to sustain playing dexterity. Thus, when a keyboard is diagonally supported around one's neck, certain areas of the keyboard are easier to play than others. In addition, only one handed playing is possible when using a strap-on keyboard.
The guitar answers many of the expressive limitations of the keyboard. The guitar allows the player to vary the sound of a particular note by varying the "picking style" employed. The guitar also allows the player to rapidly and repeatedly "strum" a note or chord, or to easily arpeggiate that chord.
Further, the guitar is very easily played while standing. The guitar straps onto the player's body, wherein the left hand is typically employed for fretting the notes along the neck of the guitar, while the right hand picks the strings at the body of the guitar.
However, the main limitation of the guitar is the seemingly illogical layout of the guitar. The standard guitar has six strings. As one moves along the neck toward the body on any given string, the pitch increases. Some adjacent strings are separated by different intervals than other adjacent strings. Playing the guitar requires significant memorization to understand the various fingerings required to play different chords. There is no easy way to distinguish accidentals and naturals on a guitar fret-board. There is no easy way to play a major or minor scale on a guitar without memorizing a specific sequence of movements.
Thus, there is a need to provide an instrument which combines to logical arrangement of the keyboard with the expressive capabilities of the guitar.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 278,917 to Sinkoff et al; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 289,900 to Aitken et al; U.S. Des. Pat. 256,366 to Dworsky; and U.S. Des. Pat. No. 342,543 to Reisman each disclose different designs for a hand-held musical instrument, which each attempt to mimic the guitar in structure and playing position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,912 to Radke discloses a manual and chord button bank portable-necked body for an electric organ. In particular, Radke discloses a device which is shaped like a guitar, wherein an ordinary keyboard is provided at the body, and two rows of buttons are arranged along the neck. A first row of button will activate a single (tonic) note. A second row of buttons comprises two buttons which are adjacent to each button on the first row. When either or both of the second row buttons adjacent to the first row button is also pressed, either a two note or three note major chord will be played. However, it seems that Radke is limited to only producing major or dominant chords.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.